USC's Marqise Lee set a Pac-12 record with 345 receiving yards, but that was the last thing on his mind in the moments after a painful 39-36 loss at Arizona. The Trojans get No. 2 Oregon next at the ColiseumAP photo

Pac-12 football links for Monday

Was USC's 39-36 loss at Arizona good or bad for No. 2 Oregon? How will it affect what was supposed to be the Pac-12 regular season Game of the Year? Those questions will be answered on Saturday at the Coliseum (4 p.m., FOX) but in the meantime those Trojans have some explaining to do. Here's how Bill Plaschke of the LA Times put it:

Marqise Lee dropped to the desert floor as if deliriously parched, covering his head with his hands and kicking his legs.mHe eventually stood up and walked slowly across the Arizona Stadium field with tears steaming down his cheeks. A USC
flunky clumsily shoved a baseball cap in front of Lee's face in an
attempt to shield his pain, but nothing could mask the truth about this
brilliant receiver and his troubled program.

Their talent is
unlimited, but their season has been a waste. Their potential is
arguably the best in the country, yet their results have been
indisputably the most disappointing in recent memory.

This Trojans are great players, yet the Trojans are one messy team,
witness Saturday's 39-36 defeat to Arizona that erased them from the
national championship picture while stripping them of all benefit of the
doubt.

More
than anything, Lane Kiffin isn't working. At some point, the learning
curve for the young coach has to start consistently trending upward. In
this most important of his three seasons here, it has flatlined.